A Child's Innocence
by Angel1029
Summary: Another "girl is a newsie" story, this one with a little girl and an older girl meeting and the older one remembering about being a child. I'm not good at summeries!


I like doing girl-newsie stories, so here's another Probably a one-shot. BTW, Petal ,Ripple and Marie are mine

To be innocent is to be a child, to a newsie, that innocence is a necessity for life.

"You can't live on the streets without wanting, and waiting for the next day. Children want adventures and take risks, if you are grown, you usually stay on the safest side."

Ripple glanced at her stack of papes and looked around. Nobody was buying today, they were all working or staying out of the rain.

_That would be the smarter thing to do; _

_Well then, why don't you; _

_Oh you know why!_ Ripple smiled as she argued with herself, a habit she had gotten from hearing the boys argue all the time.

After wandering around, with no hope, she returned all the unsold papes to Wiesel and left for the lodging house.

As she walked in the door, some of the boys looked up from their spot around the fire.

"Hey Rip, sell anything today?"

She shook her head, "Nope, nadda thing." She collapsed onto the couch and started fiddling with some buttons on her shirt. "Where's Petal today?" she asked, glancing up.

"Uh, she said she was goin' ta sell papes an then be back" one of the boys offered.

She smirked, "Smart one"

Everyone knew that she and Petal were best friends and always wanted to know where the other was.

"You guys?"

Everyone looked up at the hushed voice. "Whaddya, want, Petal?" some of them muttered.

"Um… you need to see this."

They all looked at each other, mystified. Everyone went out to stand next to Petal and see what she was talking about.

Ripple managed to get in the front, and when she saw the body, lying there, she gasped and nearly fell over. "Hey, Ripple, you ok?"

She mutely nodded as she was pushed aside for others to bring the little girl inside.

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Ripple sat on the bunk, next to the little girl. _She looks so much like Marie_, she shook her head, she couldn't be, Marie had died two years ago, at six. _But this girl looks about eight, and you know it. _She had to agree with herself, she did look eight-ish.

With shoulder-length, wavy, brown hair, she looked nothing like Ripple, who had straight, waist-length, redish gold hair.

_We'll just see who she is when she wakes up._ She decided, just as the little girl opened her eyes.

"Hey, you're awake" Ripple smiled at her, "how are ya feeling?"

The little girl rubbed her eyes, "I'm fine, who're you?"

Ripple paused, _should I tell her my REAL name? I dunno, what do you think? You're no help._ She decided, "I'm Catherine, who're you?"

"Cathy!" the little girl squealed and jumped into her arms. "It's you!" she exclaimed, "I've been looking EVERYWHERE for you!"

Ripple hugged her hesitantly, "Um..ok"

The little girl's face fell, "You don't remember me? It's me, Marie." Marie scanned Ripples face for some sign of recognition. "You don't, do you?"

Ripple stared at her, in disbelief, "No, no, there's no way. You can't be her, Marie DIED. She's gone."

Marie looked at her for a moment, before saying, "I didn't die, I ran, just like you did. Daddy only shot Mommy and Will. I hid in the shed and after the police came, I ran again, but this time, I didn't know where to go." Marie glanced up at her big sister and continued, "I tried to follow you, but I didn't know which way you went. I ended up at the orphanage in Brooklyn. The lady there was nice but I still wanted to find you, so three days ago, I left."

She looked up with pleading eyes, "Can I stay with you, please Cathy, pleeassee!"

Ripple smiled, she believed her. "Sure you can stay, but you have to work too." She warned. Little Marie shook her head vigorously.

As they went downstairs to introduce her to the other newsies, Ripple turned to Marie, "And here, my name is Ripple, ok."

"K"

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Weeks later:

Ripple sat, watching the younger newsies play tackle, or something similar that involved tying some of them up. She looked up as Race leaned against the wall, next to her and pulled out a cigar.

She was thinking as Race blew puffs of smoke into the air. "What ya thinking about?"

Ripple looked up and replied, "You sometimes need to be a child."

He glanced down at her, puzzled, "How come?"

"You can't live on the streets without wanting, and waiting for the next day. Children want adventures and take risks, if you are grown, you usually stay on the safest side." She looked up at him, "and if you don't take risks out here, you'll probably be starving in an alley in one day."

"Yup," he nodded, "Ain't that the truth."

Petal wasn't a main character like I wanted, but , oh well :D

Please hit that review button, right down there v

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